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Friday, January 6, 2012

Fitness Challenge. Time Capsule, and Yummy Food

Wow, I got really busy today! In fact I was quite busy all week and never got some posts done I intended to. As a result, you get a 3-in-1 post tonight and I'll be posting a kale recipe with pictures tomorrow. Here goes!

First of all, each Friday I'd like you to report in how you did with your Fitness goals during the week. Are you able to keep your appointments with yourself? If not, what can you change for the coming week? Did you reach your goals? Do you have any new goals for next week?

I did awesome and met all of my goals, even though I started small. I walked a mile every day this week including today. I biked every day, too, on my recumbent indoor bike. I started at 5 minutes and added 1 minute each day, so that today I biked 9 minutes and went 1.99 miles. No injuries or soreness yet, so that's a plus! I will be taking one day off from biking each week, probably Sunday. However, if for some reason I don't get my biking done on Saturday, that will be my day off. It's harder for me to get it done when there's no school. I plan to continue increasing my bike time by one minute on any day I feel comfortable with that. I will probably stay at 10 or 12 minutes for several days. I am not ready to add in my PT or strength training yet; I want to be sure the walking and biking is an established habit before adding anything new.

I also got my 'dungeon' quite a bit less cluttered. Several boxes of things were donated, several bags went in the trash, and today I shredded three large batches of old papers and documents that I no longer need. I am gradually filing everything I kept. Nothing in that room is getting dumped into any other rooms, either: no shoving boxes in the garage or the shed or the bedroom. It has to either find a place in my home or go somewhere else.

A funny thing happened this week with the exercise. I gained weight. Yes, I stayed completely on plan, drank plenty of water, and there is no good reason for a gain except maybe my muscles retaining water due to the increased use. I am still hopeful for a loss or at least a maintain at my weigh in on Sunday, but I am still going to give it another week without changing anything to see if my body adjusts to the exercise and drops the weight. Let's hope. I certainly FEEL better exercising and look forward to it every day.

Do you remember this post a year ago: Time Capsule 2010: Visions of the Future? Many of you joined me in writing a letter to your future selves. Go back and look in the comments and read what you wrote back then. Do you remember how you felt? How do you feel now? Did things turn out as you had planned? I would love to hear from you about this, so if you wrote yourself a letter back then, please leave a comment and tell me how things turned out for you! Mine kind of made me sad. I was so sure I'd reach my goal in 2011. I'd have never believed you if you'd told me I'd GAIN weight by now. But I have turned it around, and one thing hasn't changed: I am determined to finish this. I have not given up.

And now for the yummy food part of this post. I found two new foods that I really like! One is Isernio's All Natural Chicken Sausage, which I found at the grocery store and bought in Italian and Breakfast varieties. This sausage fits into Medifast's Lean category and according to Nutrition Support we can have 7 ounces plus a healthy fat. I prefer to have 5 ounces plus some other, lower sodium option like Egg Beaters. This sausage has NO carbs and is delicious! The other thing I found is Mezzetta All Natural Homemade Style Marinara Sauce, which is a very fresh tasting spaghetti sauce and contains only 5 grams of carbs per half cup! Awesome for low carbers and a half cup counts as one Green serving on Medifast. And what did I make for dinner last night with these two new ingredients?

This!

(Yes, I got new dishes during Black Friday!! Cute huh?)

Sauteed green peppers and mushrooms (1/4 c), browned Italian chicken sausage in 1 tsp olive oil, and 1/2 c. of the marinara sauce over 3/4 c. steamed spaghetti squash! This was SO GOOD. I cannot even tell you how awesome this tasted! I am going to have it again and again. It's a new favorite. Try it! So healthy, low carb, and good (and counts as one complete Lean and Green meal for Medifast!)

Today for lunch I had Medifast sloppy joe with sauteed green peppers and mushrooms mixed in. It was excellent. Dinner was an omelet made from Egg Beaters, filled with sauteed green peppers and mushrooms and 2% low fat mozzarella, with two chicken breakfast sausage patties on the side.

That's all for now. I am really tired from such a busy day, but I am happy and content. Have a great weekend!

13 comments:

I have a question for you, Lyn: What will you do with this blog when you reach your goal? One of my other favourite weight-loss bloggers has all but abandoned her blog since reaching her goal (and at least short-term maintenance). I know your goal is within your reach but I worry you'll stop writing when you get there!

I'm sad that I can't get that chicken sausage here in michigan yet.. maybe soon.. Your dinner looked so yummy and really close to what I have been making.. I added a laughing cow garlic wedge to make my spaghetti squash cheesy.. I so love cheesy things.. I did the time capsule with you.. I looked back at it actually around Jan 2nd.. it was sad for me too because I really would have thought I would have reached my goal as well.. but didn't.. Last year I worked on fixing what I had done to my body in 2010.. I did a really low carb diet and was cold all the time.. my thyroid got pretty messed up with it all and the low body temps really stunk.. I had to really watch what I ate all year but make my carbs higher.. in the end i"m very happy with how it went.. I had gained some but then ended the year with about a 10 lb loss.. although that seems really small.. I'm in a MUCH much better place than before.. I did complete my workouts this week.. Great job on cleaning out that room.. You are doing a awesome job with exercise.. cleaning.. and sticking to your plan.. the weight will catch up soon.. Enjoy your weekend..

I did great with my exercise plan in December, and have been slow to start in January. This past week, I ran on the treadmill at the gym twice, and did Jillian Michaels yoga dvd. Coming week plan:Sat, Mon : Shred DVDSun, Wed : TreadmillFri : yogaTu, Th : rest

When you get a change, would you mind posting a review of the Medifast sloppy joe on your Medifast foods page? I've been wanting to try it but afraid I'll hate it and be stuck with a box of expensive food that I don't want to eat, and I've found your other reviews *extremely* helpful in figuring out what to order so far.

I love to write! I bet maintenance is just as interesting. I plan to keep writing about becoming more fit and all the adventures I have with my new body :)

Anonymous~

Sure! I just added that review to my Tips page. The sloppy joe is one of my favorite Medifast meals! I have heard from others on Medifast that they really like it too. The review is here: http://escapefromobesity.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-medifast-food-reviews-with-pictures.html

I have experienced weight gain from exercise too. It's super frustrating because it seems so counter-productive; but that's just short-term. But long-term it really is for the best. Exercise will make you strong and healthy so that when the fat disappears you will have sexy, strong muscles underneath and fitness to match!

I've just started a maintenance blog where I'll be talking about some of these issues if you're interested!www.achievingequilibrium.com

I wrote myself a letter last year in the time capsule post and had actually gone back at the beginning of December to see what I had said and see how I did. Overall, I feel pretty good about what I read- I wasn't 100% successful but I see myself as a work in progress right now.The first thing I said to myself in the letter was that I saw the "me" in 2012 finally being in onederland. I remember thinking back then that it was probably impossible but I was going to write it anyways and see how it went. I think I managed about a month on plan in January and then pretty much forgot about it until August. I finally got serious then and went from 263 to 227 in December. That wasn't onederland, but honestly, its more than I would have imagined I could do. Even though I didn't make my target, I feel for the first time that it is possible, and that feels pretty good. I wrote to myself as well that if I still felt horribly frustrated and stuck in my job, I would give myself permission to look into other options. I feel kind of sad reading that because I remember thinking that there's no way I'd still feel that way in a year, and that somehow I was going to find a way to feel good about it. Sadly, I still feel that way, and maybe it is time.Anyway, I really liked that exercise last year and I think I'm going to write myself a new letter this year. I can't believe how fast the last year went and I know this one will go quickly too...

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Who IS this person?

I am 38 years old, female, a degree-holding stay-at-home-mom, and I weigh 278 pounds. I have been obese for ten years now. Time to get out of this fat prison I have made for myself.
--This is the original introduction I wrote when I first started this blog in 2007. I leave it as a reminder to myself of where I came from. Currently, I am 46 years old and weigh significantly less...see the blog for details. I lost 103 pounds, then had a partial regain, and am once again working at weight loss and better health.

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